


Glass Mountain

by lover_of_blue_roses



Series: Johnica Week 2020 [2]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Fairy Tale Style, John Deacon centric, in which john is a good person just trying to live his best life, magic world, so if he could not be threatened with curses and evil eagles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22257373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lover_of_blue_roses/pseuds/lover_of_blue_roses
Summary: John wants to live well and be well, but this complicated when there are talking animals, a sorcerer, an enchanted princess and all kinds of dangers.
Relationships: John Deacon/Veronica Tetzlaff
Series: Johnica Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602112
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6
Collections: Johnica Week 2020





	Glass Mountain

**Author's Note:**

> This is written as a traditional fairy tale and thus all the repetitive sentences and themes are intentional much like how in Goldilocks she tries the porridge, chair and then beds. It's not for everyone but I think it's nice to change it up from all the other fics we read.  
> This includes common and popular motifs found in many fairy tales but the biggest influences are mostly 'Glass Mountain' + 'The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener' + 'The Magic Book'+'King Kojata'
> 
> Second note: As we know very little about Veronica she is very little in this fic, both literally and in terms of personality (although still more present than in like the whole of Glass Mountain), so this is john-centric and she does show up until the last little bit.

John Deacon, known by his peers as Deacy, was a young man when his father passed away. His mother's heart was burdened with grief. He would not see her force herself to remarry, nor they and his sister live in destitute, so he was resolute to find employment. 

He was young still, only a lad of sixteen, but determined and believing that as he was smart, skilled and hard working that he would be a boon to any master if they would only gave him the chance. 

Deacy thought he might do well in the service of a knight and so sought out a squireship. And although he was strong, capable, dutiful and loyal, they had no need of him and all told him no. 

He did not despair for he knew he must do this for the sake of his mother and sister. He next went to the millers, for as sure as he could tend a horse and polish armor, he could lift and carry. Yet when he sought out to be in the services of a miller, they had no need of him and all told him no. 

Still he did not despair for he knew he must do this for the sake of his mother and sister. Next, he went to the merchants, for as sure as he could lift and carry, he could read missives and do his numbers. He knew that rare was this skill and fortunate he had been to have been taught in his youth. Yet when he sought out to be in the services of a merchant, they had no need of him and all told him no. 

At this it was hard for the youth not to despair. If he could not work for the knights and he could not work for the miller and he could not even work for the merchants, what hope was there? He had already wasted so much time, not much longer could his mother and sister bear it. Soon, if he could not think of something, his mother would have to sell her wedding ring for what precious metal it was. But he could not let this symbol of his parents love be melted down.

Out of desperation Deacy went to the hermit that lived above the shepherd's field. It was rumored that he was a warlock but the young man did not care as long as his money was good. Long had this hermit lived out of the village and he had grown old and bent. So Deacy offered to help with all that the hermit might find challenging with old age, to chop the wood, sweep the floor, wash the clothes. Anything if it might mean he could provide for his family.

Deacy climbed up the mountain though the path was steep and treacherous and knocked at the hermit's door. The hermit opened the door and indeed as Deacy had thought, the man was old. Very old that his beard had grown long enough to be tucked in his belt and that although he squinted Deacy suspected he could not see past the end of his nose.

The young man offered his services and indeed the hermit confirmed that he did need help but first he had a question to ask. Could Deacy read? And Deacy was proud to answer that in fact he could, he had learned his numbers and letters as a child and could read as easily as walk. But this answer did not please the hermit, who closed the door in his face.

Deacy was truly heartbroken, starting to walk down the path and back to the village. He thought about how he could tell his mother that he had failed and the weight upon his chest seemed to double, but then he had a wicked idea. Yes, indeed that might just work.

He made it back down the mountain and told nothing to his mother as they supped, sleeping soundly that night. The next morning he returned up the mountain and knocked again on the hermit's door. Deacy had changed nothing but his shirt. And indeed when the hermit opened the door his old eyes failed to recognized that it was the same youth that stood before him. Again Deacy asked for work and this time when asked if he could read he lied so the hermit allow Deacy to work for him. 

Deacy was tasked with sweeping the floors and then washing them, tasks he was perfectly happy and capable to do. Against one wall of the hermit's house was a large bookshelf and Deacy wondered what it was that he was not allowed to read, if it might not be tomes on sorcery.

The hermit questioned the young man on why he had been asked for employment, especially for two days in a row. Deacy told him about how he had asked the knights, the merchants, and the millers for work and how they had all told him no. 

'So it follows' said the hermit ominously and he told Deacy of what he had heard from the far lands. In the north there was a glass mountain where there grew a tree with golden apples. Only if one had picked such an apple would they be allowed into the golden castle where the enchanted princess was held. The hermit feared that such a treasure would be very tempting to all the knights of all the lands and that in the doing so of this quest would fail, the beautiful landscape of the glass mountain would become their final resting place. That certainly explained why there were more squires than knights.

Deacy wondered when the hermit could have heard such a story but the hermit refused to say, and so all day Deacy thought on this as he cleaned the cabin. If knights in armor failed, then he of course stood no chance. Not that he thought he was good enough for a princess, let alone an enchanted princess. Still he could pick one of these golden apples, surely he could sell it to a knight or perhaps even a prince, for enough money to take care of his family. 

It had clearly been years since the floor had been cleaned, most troublesome was the sand that was between every plank although he could not understand where it came from and the hermit refused to answer. By the time the floor had been swept and washed with a wet cloth, the sun was setting. The hermit paid him for his work and Deacy proudly returned to his village with his day's wages.

When he returned the next day he was to chop the wood outside. The hermit told him that yesterday a knight in golden armor had tried to climb the glass mountain and pick a golden apple. Perhaps he had hoped that if his armor was as the apple and the castle, he might make it. For you see, the day before he had safely made it halfway up but then had calmly went down again. So on the second day, he had tried for the top, and was climbing steadily when an eagle attacked him. He and his horse had fallen to their deaths. 

Again Deacy asked how the hermit could know such a thing but the old man grew angry and again refused to answer. Although there was still much wood to prepare the hermit forced him inside and made him clean out the fireplace. It was tedious, dirty work that would surely ruin Deacy's clean clothing and yet he could not miss even a day's wages. 

The fireplace had not been cleaned for many years and soon Deacy not only had soot on his hands and arms but also his face. Still he continued to work until the work would be done. The hermit ate a cold lunch and seemed to have forgot about him as he could no longer see him under all that soot. Not long after he left him alone without saying a word.

Soon Deacy was done with work, the fireplace was once again clean probably as it hadn't been in a decade or two. He carefully cleaned himself in the wash basin and even had time enough to scrub his clothes but still the hermit did not return. So Deacy went and looked at the bookshelf. He took one that was bound in red leather and under a raven's skull. When he opened it he found it filled with magic, spells on shapeshifting. Terrified to be caught by this warlock, he let himself out of the cabin and hurried all the way back home. It was only when he arrived back in the village that he realized he had not been paid. 

Deacy fears working for a warlock and yet he fears poverty or what it might do to his mother even more. So the next day he returns, the hermit makes do as though nothing were amiss. Deacy tells his employer that he was not payed for yesterday's services and believing him, he is instantly given payment. The young man fears the power and trust that this old man's frail mind seems to have in him, trust that he could exploit. 

Afraid of being tempted to exploit it, Deacy asks what he can do that might take him away from here. The hermit tells him of a quest a few days away to collect a rare and special plant. As Deacy's village is down this side of the mountain, this quest takes him on the other side and a few days north. So Deacy does as he is told and sets out with nothing but a small satchel of food, rope and the slingshot his father made for him. It isn't much against possible bandits or wild animals but he's rather talented with it. After his father's death, the birds Deacy could fell with a stone to the wing was often their best source of food or income. 

And indeed upon his way to the neighboring village he sees a fox upon his path. The animal however is not a threat and only asks for food and so Deacy take some dried meat from his satchel and throws it to the animal. The animal eats it and then leaves without causing any trouble.

Once in town there are two inns, one is clearly full of merriment, music can be heard from the street and the people inside seem to be dancing and joyful. Across the street there is another inn, this one is silent like the grave. People can not even be heard talking inside. 

Again a fox appears on this path, the same fox. "If you pick the merry inn you will never come out again."

Deacy is unaware if he has helped a God or some magical animal but he heeds its words carefully. "And the other inn?" For it had not said that a similar fate would not await him in the other.

The fox seems almost to grin. "If you stay in the quiet inn, you will leave the next day onward in your quest." 

Deacy thanks the fox and follows his advice. He sleeps peacefully and restfully, ready to continue on his quest when he wakes. 

He has hardly walked for more than an hour when he comes across a limping badger on the road. It is injured but Deacy is unsure what he can do for the poor creature. It looks at him and speaks as well, "Carry me on your trip." It commands. It did not offer him a reward or even say 'please' but Deacy is strong and fit, so it should be no burden to carry the animal. 

So he bends down, carefully lifting up the animal before continuing on his way. It seems that with every step the animal grows heavier and heavier in his arms until Deacy fears he can no longer continue. "Go to the river here and drink to recuperate," the badger tells him and so he does, placing the badger down on the path. As soon as he does, it is as though he is free of a great burden, his body rejoices while still protesting the consequences of the weight it bore. 

He turns left off of the path, approaching the clear flowing brook, and with every step his feet remember the weight. In the river's troubled waters a cup bobs along, trapped in the currents. He kneels by the riverbed and his knees remember the weight. He tries to reach for the cup but it evades his seeking hand that remembers the weight. He tries to lean over the river but his back remembers the weight and he over balances falling into the foaming brine.

So strong is the current, so powerful the water that Deacy, who could tend a horse and polish armor, who could lift and carry, who could read missives and do his numbers, who could clean floors and chop wood, could not swim to freedom. Far the water takes him, down and further down, as though the brook is a depthless lake. 

Deacy cries out to the fox, to the badger whom he had helped but all that came from his lips are bubbles blown soft and fine. A hand grabs him by the arm, it is a mermaid, blue and scaly. He thinks her to drag him under but instead she takes him near to the surface that only his lips might gasp at the air. "I will let you go if you promise me the most prized possession in all the land." John has no money, no jewels or gems but he promises and she releases him. 

She places him upon the shore and again his clothes are dry, which was good for the ground is now covered in snow. In his palm she places the cup he had tried to reach. He is unsure why she had gifted this to him but at her urging, fills it with the lake's water and drinks from it. The taste is pure and clean. His body no longer aches to have held such a weight. He thanks her and continues on his way.

He does not know where he is but he sees the glass mountain itself nearby, it shines in the sunlight like the finest of crystals. As he does not know where he is or how to go home, he decides to climb it in hopes to situate himself. He hopes that as the golden knight had on his first day, if he does not climb pass halfway he will not perish. 

He has only just approached the mountain and has yet to step upon it's surface when a loud scream is heard. He runs towards the noise though he has no other weapon than the slingshot he pulls from his satchel. He grabs a rock from the ground and comes upon the scene. From pigs to frogs to birds, many animals can scream like a human. And indeed when he arrives it is to see a fleeing screaming hedgehog running from a lynx. 

The lynx looks at the young man and must see him as weak prey for it turns to attack him, it perhaps thinks him an easy meal. But armed with his slingshot, Deacy is able to stun it in the eye. 

The beast stops but is not dead. Deacy searches in his satchel with one hand but has not brought a knife or ought else he can use as a weapon, only the food and the rope. The lynx makes to charge and so Deacy fills his slingshot with one of his apples and hit the animal in the other eye. It roars and screams but will not admit defeat. 

Again the beast charges. This time Deacy grabs the rope and waited until it is upon him to jump from the partly blinded creature's lunge and secure the rope around its neck. It claws and fights but soon it lays as dead as it had tried to make Deacy. 

Deacy backs up from the creature that had nearly cost him his life and nearly stumbles across the hedgehog that appears to wait patiently for him. "Take its claws to climb the mountain."

The young man thanks the animal and does as he is told. He attaches its claws to his feet and hands and climbs the sheer wall. It is exhausting, so exhausting that when he arrives at a small ledge, he stops to rest, weary from the day's travel. He is scraped and bruised from his climb but he believes he can keep going. He eats and relaxes there until the eagle, who must have thought him a carrion, flies down to eat him. Deacy barely moves fast enough to dodge and nearly walks right off the cliff. He lungs to grab out and catches hold of the eagle's legs. 

Truly the bird can not be natural for it is indeed large enough to fell an armored knight and his horse. The bird protests at being held and flaps its wings as though to dislodge the boy but only takes him further and further up the mountain. Deacy dares not let go until there is once again land beneath his feet which is not until the struggling animal has brought him to the mountain top.

Deacy lets go then and takes shelter under a tree but the eagle pursues him. Armed only with the lynx's claws, he slashes at the eagle. He scores it wide upon its chest and it screams, flying away. 

The wound bleeds and the eagle's blood revives all that had died on the mountain. The young man does not see this for he still is on the summit and under the tree, it is only then that he realizes that this tree bears golden apples. He reaches up to pick an apple and is surprised that the fruit is not as hard and unyielding as the metal who's color it shares. He takes a hesitant bite and his teeth sink into it as though it is any other apple. One bite from the fruit cures him of his wounds. 

He grabs another as to grant him passage into the castle. The climb down the mountain is easy and soon he is before the golden castle. He presents the golden apple from the glass mountain and the doors swing open on their own. He takes hesitant steps in, weary of any more traps. 

He is tackled from the side and he thinks to brandish the lynx's claws but it is only a girl, a crying girl. Deacy has long dealt with his sister and knows how to offers comfort, which he does gladly. The girl is delighted to see him, to see anyone. "I am so happy to finally be free and delighted to have a husband not only so brave and daring but as handsome as you."

John blushes and truly can want nothing more in his life but, "Husband-? My Lady, you must be mistaken-"

"Yes, my apologies. My betrothed, for we have not yet said our vows before the Lord."

"No, I mean I am merely a farmer's son. I can not marry a princess."

"But you can and you will. You see for the sorcerer said that only the man that was good enough to climb the glass mountain and pick the golden apple could be worthy of being my husband and father to my children." She looked at the golden apple still in his hand. "Are you not this man?"

"So I am." Deacy agrees. "The sorcerer said it so?"

"And my father agreed."

"Your father... The king?" She nods. "He agreed with the sorcerer that imprisoned you here?" 

"I could never have children and so I begged my father to help me and so he sought out the most powerful sorcerer in all the land to help me. And so he did and I can now bear you many sons." She smiled as brightly as the sun.

"I might like daughters too," Deacy confessed and she smile even more.

"I want to have as many children as I have fingers on my hand."

"Then we will wed and have as many children as you have fingers on your hand, and one more."

"And one more?"

"For luck."

She thought about this for a moment, "All the more to love." She concludes. They leave that golden castle and as soon as they step foot on the earth before it, the castle vanishes into dust as though it had never been as does the mountain and its apple tree. They walk down the path that follows the river. Deacy goes to hold her hand but finds he is still holding the apple. 

He has forgotten his promise and thinks now only of love and so throws it away. However his throw lands it into the briny water and thus the mermaid whom had spared his life catches this most treasured of possessions and so all stays well. The sorcerer who had been the eagle, who had been the hermit, who had seen in John Deacon the heart that strives to help his family and yet the wisdom to turn away from tomes of power, has found the perfect match for the Princess; truly a man that is good and worthy. 

Deacy and the Princess indeed went on to have six children whom they loved as the stars do the night and as the warmth does the fire.


End file.
